LAUSR

Abstract Recently, the visible-light-driven titanium dioxide (TiO 2) photocatalytic process has received greater attention in the treatment of organic pollutants because of its less energy consumption, higher performance, and sustainable nature. In this context, the present study was conducted to synthesize nanocomposites of TiO 2 photocatalyst by doping with graphene oxide (GO) and silver (Ag) nanoparticles using sol–gel along with solvent heat treatment method. The physic-chemical properties of all photocatalysts were characterized by XRD, SEM, FTIR, and UV-Vis/DRS spectrophotometer analyses. The XRD showed the increased amount of anatase phase of TiO 2/GO/Ag crystal structure compared to undoped TiO2, and TiO 2/GO nanocomposite. More rugged and roughness surface was observed for TiO 2/GO/Ag as compared to undoped TiO2, and TiO 2/GO from SEM images. FTIR confirms the stretching vibration of the hydroxyl group in TiO2 lattice structure. Under solar irradiation with 3 h contact time at a fixed pH of 6.8, all the photocatalysts showed effective removal of 15 mg L−1 methyl orange (MO) dye in aqueous solution and the removals were 72.53%, 86.20%, and 97.66% for undoped TiO 2, TiO2/GO, and TiO 2/GO/Ag nanocomposites, respectively, at the same dose of a photocatalyst. The photocatalytic performances of all the catalysts were decreased with the increase of dye concentration and increased with the addition of oxidant H 2 O2. The kinetic study indicates that the photocatalytic degradation of MO dye was time-dependent and was fitted the best with experimental data. Based on the experimental results, it can be concluded that the synthesized TiO 2/GO/Ag nanocomposite has great potential for sustainable management of textile wastewater.